Community Resilience

Cultural Burning & Indigenous Fire

Fire Ecology & Academia

Fire Technology

Guest Host

Policy

Prescribed Fire

Wildland Firefighting

2024 fire season

aerial firefighting

air attack

aircraft

arizona

author

beavers

Calf Canyon Hermits Peak

canada wildfires

certified burn manager

community forest

crisis strategy

cultural burning

cultural fire

emergency management

fire ecology

fire tech

fire technology

forest service

forestry

grassroots wildland firefighter

helicopter coordination

hotshot

journalist

lahaina

managed fire

mental health

montana

new jersey

new mexico

nonprofit

northeast wildfire

oregon

oregon certified burn manager

oregon prescribed fire

oregon wildfire

pine barrens

policy

prescribed fire

rematriation

smoke

southwest

us hotshots

washington state

watch duty

Wildfire

wildfire commission report

wildfire communication

wildfire evacuation

wildfire resilience

wildfire response

wildfire technology

wildland firefighters

wildland firefighting

youth voices

There&#8217;s a chance you&#8217;ve seen Nez Perce wildland firefighter and model Celilo Miles in a recent advertisement for Victoria&#8217;s Secret—in it, she wears Nomex pants and holds her hard hat, emblazoned with the<a href="https://nezperceforestryandfire.com/fire-management/">&nbsp;Nez Perce Tribe&#8217;s fire management program</a>&nbsp;logo. After seeing the ad making the rounds in the wildland fire community, we tracked Celilo down to chat about her background as both a wildland firefighter and a model and how her appearance in the VS advertisement came about. She spoke about balancing modeling and fire, and what each vocation has taught her about the other. We also spoke about the dynamic of being a woman in fire, during which she provided some suggestions for other woman who are interested in fire or are just getting started.



This episode is the first in our series on women in wildfire, which will run until early May.&nbsp;



Celilo in Vogue Magazine:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/victorias-secret-love-cloud-launch-celilo-miles-interview">https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/victorias-secret-love-cloud-launch-celilo-miles-interview</a>



Life with Fire Patreon:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod">www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod</a>



Life with Fire website:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lifewithfirepodcast.com/">www.lifewithfirepodcast.com</a>



Life with Fire email:&nbsp;<a href="mailto:lifewithfirepod@gmail.com">lifewithfirepod@gmail.com</a>

From Fashion Week to the Fireline with Celilo Miles

The Mt. Adams Resource Stewards in Washington State is an excellent example of a hyper-local solution to community fire resilience. Started in 2004 by this week&#8217;s guest, Jay McLaughlin, the organization now boasts a community forest, a 10-person stewardship crew, community development programs and fire adaptation resources for nearby communities. Jay has a deep pool of experience in engaging rural (often former logging) communities in fire resilience and more progressive land management; in today&#8217;s episode, we speak about the challenges of an organization like this, but also the myriad ways this work has been immensely rewarding for Jay and others in the community. He also offers some suggestions and bits of advice for others who hope to develop similar organizations in their own communities.



More information on the Mt. Adams Resource Stewards:&nbsp;<a href="https://mtadamsstewards.org/">https://mtadamsstewards.org/</a>



Deer Humans Podcast Link:&nbsp;<a href="https://player.fm/series/deer-humans">https://player.fm/series/deer-humans</a>



Life with Fire website:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lifewithfirepodcast.com/">www.lifewithfirepodcast.com</a>



Life with Fire Patreon:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod">www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod</a>



Time stamps:



5:48 — Mt. Adams Resource Stewards background/creation; fuels program development



8:56 — Working forest creation and introduction of stewardship crew



15:00 — Is this type of organization scalable across other Western communities?



17:35 — Earning buy-in from resource-dependent communities; outreach insights in rural communities, hearing out detractors



20:14 — Original inspiration for starting the organization



22:09 — Funding sources.



24:20 — Building connections in resource-dependent areas



25:41 — Suggestions for other organizers interested in creating a community forest

Creating Connections Through Community Forests with Jay McLaughlin

In the second half of their conversation, Michael Wara and Amanda briefly dive into the nitty gritty of liability regimes as they relate to both wildland and prescribed fires, how smoke will continue to impact communities across the West and finally, how the current suppression workforce structure is not a practical means of moving into a more fire-adapted future. Of course, a suppression workforce will always be important, but Michael considers the abysmal work-life balance of the current wildland fire suppression structure and how that contributes to low retention of skilled employees. Eventually this brings him to consider how women are pushed out of the suppression/operational fire world by way of wanting a family or children, and how this has long-standing implications for the sustainability of the workforce and its objectives.



Life with Fire Patreon:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.patreon.com/lifewithfire">www.patreon.com/lifewithfire</a>



Life with Fire Website:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lifewithfirepodcast.com/">www.lifewithfirepodcast.com</a>



Notes:



3:15—Wildfire liability/responsibility regimes



8:45—Air quality impacts on communities



12:30—Prescribed fire liabilities, California&#8217;s &#8220;claims fund&#8221;



21:55—Sustainability of suppression workforce; retention and having a family; the engrained misogyny of wildland firefighter work-life balance



23:30—Could community fire stewards be the future of sustainable employment in the wildfire/prescribed fire spaces?



26:55—The desperate need to build a bigger, skilled workforce to meet our management objectives

Michael Wara Part 2: Sustainability of the Suppression Workforce + Lots More

President Biden recently rolled out a plan to treat 50 million acres of land with fire over the next 10 years. The question is—is 50 million acres actually realistic with the system we have in place right now? We spoke with environmental law and policy expert Michael Wara about the logistics of actually putting that much fire on the ground to reduce risk in vulnerable communities, how we may not be in a place to scale it to that level yet, and what we can do to get to the necessary level of fuels reduction and fire resilience. We also talked a bit about Michael&#8217;s job as the Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford, and what he and his students are doing in the environmental and wildland fire spaces to help fire practitioners and build fire resilience into law and policy.&nbsp;This is our episode one of two with Michael, with the next publishing in two weeks.



Timestamps: 7:55 — Wildfire risk to utilities. 15:30 — Biden&#8217;s plan to burn 50 million acres in 10 years. 21:35 — Limitations of Forest Service resources in achieving those acreage goals. 26:00 — Thinking radically about the future of fire policy.

The Reality of Burning 50 Million Acres in 10 Years with Michael Wara

When smokejumper Tim Hart died from injuries sustained during a hard landing in New Mexico in May, his wife Michelle Hart quickly realized that she needed a way to channel her grief. She also realized she was in a unique position to draw attention to the needs of wildland firefighters—she had a personal connection to the issues facing them, and as a lobbyist, she also had the legislative chops to make legitimate change at a congressional level. This all culminated in the creation of the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act, which addresses firefighter compensation, benefits, access to mental health resources and availability of housing for firefighters, among other provisions. We spoke with Michelle about the bill and the grief that influenced its creation back in November. They&#8217;ve continued garnering support for the bill, though not much as changed with the bill since when we chatted with Michelle. As of January 19, the bill has been referred to the subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, where it awaits support from the senate.

The Tim Hart Act and Channeling Grief with Michelle Hart

Life with Fire Podcast

Life with Fire Podcast

Episodes

Ep. 29—From Fashion Week to the Fireline with Celilo Miles

Ep. 28—Creating Connections Through Community Forests with Jay McLaughlin

Ep. 27—Michael Wara Part 2: Sustainability of the Suppression Workforce + Lots More

Ep. 26—The Reality of Burning 50 Million Acres in 10 Years with Michael Wara

Ep. 25—The Tim Hart Act and Channeling Grief with Michelle Hart

Episode Collections

Tags